Mob Forces De Klerk to Flee Township
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — President Frederik W. de Klerk felt the rising heat of black anger with his government Saturday when a seething township mob pelted his car with rocks and forced him to hastily abort a visit to the scene of last week’s massacre in Boipatong.
Heavily armed police later opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets and birdshot, killing at least one man and injuring more than a dozen others.
During a news conference at a nearby army base, a stunned De Klerk said the government will not consider relinquishing its hold on power until the countrywide violence has ended. And he hinted that the government might be forced to reimpose martial law countrywide to halt the escalating violence.
That bloodshed, along with the increasing militancy of township blacks, has severely damaged the standing of the reformist president as well as of black leaders such as Nelson Mandela, president of the African National Congress, and Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi.
And it already poses a serious threat to the negotiating process, which stalled last month after six months of steady progress.
“We will not allow this country to fall into a state of anarchy,†De Klerk said Saturday. “We will not hand over this country into a state of chaos.â€
De Klerk has previously maintained that the violence would end only after a negotiated settlement with black leaders was reached. Now, with township bloodletting on the upswing, De Klerk appears to have made the end of violence a precondition of constitutional talks.
“If necessary, and we have tried to avoid it at all costs, we will have to look beyond the present measures to maintain law and order and ensure the safety of men, women and children,†De Klerk added. “There are various possibilities. It would be a very sad day if we are forced to go back to that (state of emergency).â€
The president laid the blame for the confrontation Saturday on the African National Congress, his primary black opposition, whose leaders in turn have blamed De Klerk for the Wednesday night massacre of 39 men, women and children.
“How can we expect them to react differently if they see leading members of the ANC associating themselves with positions saying De Klerk and (Law and Order Minister Hernus) Kriel are wanted for murder?†De Klerk said. “I reject that inference and accusation with utter contempt.â€
The massacre in Boipatong, a shantytown south of Johannesburg, was the single worst incident of violence since De Klerk launched his reform program more than two years ago.
Survivors claim that the late-night attacks were carried out by several hundred armed supporters of the ANC’s rival, the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party, and some have said they saw police vehicles transporting heavily armed attackers to the township.
ANC leaders, including Secretary General Cyril Ramaphosa, blame De Klerk for the massacre. Although Ramaphosa stopped short of suggesting that De Klerk ordered the massacre, he contended Friday that the president had ignored numerous allegations of police complicity in township attacks and is, in any case, responsible for maintaining law and order in the country.
In a statement Saturday, the ANC criticized De Klerk for attempting to visit the township, saying the visit was a “media event†and a transparent attempt “to create the impression that he cared†about the victims of violence. The ANC called for an international commission of inquiry into the massacre and demanded that the police replace their commanders in the region.
De Klerk has ordered a full-scale police investigation into the massacre, and 200 officers have been assigned to investigate. Detectives on Saturday sealed off the KwaMadala hostel, a single-men’s dormitory and Inkatha stronghold, and were questioning residents. ANC leaders contend the perpetrators of the massacre came from the hostel. No arrests have yet been made.
The timing of De Klerk’s visit to the township Saturday morning was kept secret, but hundreds of ANC and Pan-Africanist Congress demonstrators were waiting when the president and his minister of law and order arrived in a chauffeured sedan escorted by dozens of armored police vehicles.
Protesters carried signs reading “De Klerk--you are not accepted in Boipatong,†“F.W. de Klerk Go Home†and “We Don’t Want You Here, De Klerk.†Many shouted insults at the motorcade and some tossed rocks, at least one of which struck a member of De Klerk’s entourage.
“I’ve never seen a crowd show such hatred,†one policeman told the independent South African Press Assn.
De Klerk had planned to visit the families of victims and hold a news conference in the township, but he retreated without emerging from his car.
After he left, the crowd swelled to several thousand and grew angrier. Police said one man was shot to death when he attempted to attack an officer with a machete. As the crowd surged forward, demanding to take the man’s body away, police fired into the crowd.
Benny Alexander, secretary general of the radical Pan-Africanist Congress and one of the protest leaders, said three people were killed and several dozen injured by police.
A police spokesman said officers were fired on by the crowd and pelted with stones before they answered with birdshot and tear gas. Although birdshot and, in rare cases, rubber bullets can be fatal at close range, police said they knew of no other fatalities. And the authorities said that when they returned to the scene, all the injured had been removed by residents.
The township, near such storied centers of black resistance as Sharpeville and Sebokeng in the Vaal Triangle, is a dusty collection of tin and wood shacks. And residents there, as in many impoverished townships, have grown increasingly angry with the inability of the police and De Klerk’s government to stop the bloodshed.
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